Hyperion

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.

A Deepness in the Sky

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. There are two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches.

The Dying Earth

The stories in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk-men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home.

Neuromancer

Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.

Dune

Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

Perdido Street Station

Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

Consider Phlebas

The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it....

Free the Darkness: King's Dark Tidings, Book 1

Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.

The Forever War

William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?

First published in 2001, American Gods became an instant classic, an intellectual and artistic benchmark from the multiple-award-winning master of innovative fiction, Neil Gaiman. Now discover the mystery and magic of American Gods in this 10th anniversary edition. Newly updated and expanded with the author's preferred text, this commemorative volume is a true celebration of a modern masterpiece by the one, the only, Neil Gaiman.

Dhalgren

Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there...the population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. And into this disaster zone comes a young man - a poet, a lover, and an adventurer - known only as the Kid.

Revelation Space

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of 20th-century literature—a chilling and still-provocative look at a postapocalyptic future.

The Darkness That Comes Before: The Prince of Nothing, Book One

In a world scarred by an apocalyptic past, evoking a time both 2,000 years past and 2,000 years into the future, untold thousands gather for a crusade. Among them, two men and two women are ensnared by a mysterious traveler, Anasûrimbor Kellhus - part warrior, part philosopher, part sorcerous, charismatic presence - from lands long thought dead. The Darkness That Comes Before is a history of this great holy war, and like all histories, the survivors write its conclusion.

Ready Player One

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.

The Dispossessed: A Novel

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.

Gardens of the Moon: The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting, and bloody confrontations with ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen’s rule remains absolute, enforced by her dreaded Claw assassins. For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, their lone surviving mage, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities, yet holds out.

The Left Hand of Darkness: BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation

The first ever broadcast dramatisation of Ursula Le Guin's seminal science fiction novel. On an alien world in the middle of an ice age, one man prepares for the biggest mission of his life. Alone and unarmed, Genly Ai has been sent from Earth to persuade the people of Gethen to join the Ekumen, a union of planets. But it's a task fraught with danger.

The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth, Book 1

This is the way the world ends. For the last time. A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great, red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal and long-dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

The Blood Mirror

When does an empire fall? The Seven Satrapies have collapsed into four - and those are falling before the White King's armies. Gavin Guile, ex-emperor, ex-Prism, ex-galley slave, formerly the one man who might have averted war, is now lost, broken, and trapped in a prison crafted by his own hands to hold a great magical genius. But Gavin has no magic at all. Worse, in this prison Gavin may not be alone.

Nine Princes in Amber: The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1

Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.

Publisher's Summary

The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.

There was a time when the fantasy genre didn't just exist to entertain, but sometimes aspired to a higher level of artfulness. The Shadow of the Torturer is such a book. Set in a far distant future, when Earth's sun is fading and human society has lost much of its technological aptitude, Wolfe's novel has a haunting, elegiac quality. It's written in a voice reminiscent of 19th century writers like Poe or Dickens, which adds to the melancholy beauty. Fortunately for the squeamish, though torture is part of the story, it's not described in much detail.

In terms of plot, The Shadow of the Torturer isn't a complex novel. The protagonist grows up under the protection of a strange, cloistered society, learns a few things about the outside world, betrays his guardians, and is thrown out to seek his own fortune -- familiar fantasy stuff. But what sets the book apart from standard swords-and-sorcery fare is the richness of its language and the great imagination in its details; the difference is like comparing a fine oil painting to a crude computer graphic rendering. It has subtlety that forces the reader to pay attention. Wolfe messes with time and space, contemplates philosophical ideas, writes long exchanges whose import isn't immediately clear, and relies on the audience to make sense of the strange, slightly dreamlike events that unfold in the story, rather than spelling out how they're connected.

Without a doubt, this is a book that will absorb some readers and alienate others. Wolfe's ornate, college-level English, though not difficult, is not for everyone. Nor will everyone relate to the protagonist's detached, clinical voice. Basically, if you're looking for a light, Harry Potter-style book with instantly charismatic characters, you're better off going elsewhere. But, for readers who appreciate sophisticated writing and atmospheric, textured imaginary worlds, this is a great read.

Thought-provoking, image-rich and intricately plotted. This series has had a prized place on my bookshelf for years and I was thrilled to see it available as an audiobook. Even better, Jonathan Davis as narrator has a moderately slow (but not too slow) pace, great voice characterization, and handles the author's challenging and singular vocabular with ease.
Wolfe is subtle, profound writer and demands close attention from his readers/ listeners; this is not a surf-along novel. If your attention is distracted for a minute, you could miss something vital, and need to rewind -- I sometimes have had to do that as I listen. But most of the time I am completely engrossed. This is one of the best finds I've made, ever.
I hope to see more Wolfe audiobooks- beginning with this series' sequel/ continuance, "The Urth of the New Sun".

I read the book years ago and was delighted to see an audiobook version, so I decided to revisit the series. Jonathan Davis is an excellent reader, striking just the right tone for the narrator Severian. I'll be listening to the entire series and would love to see more audiobooks from Gene Wolfe.

I must have read the entire four-book series at some point in the 90s, and I recall that i was fascinated by the story. Fast forward to 2012. I accidentally happened upon the Shadow of the Torturer while perusing some books lists. Wow. I was very pleased to see that Audible has the entire series. The author has written a compelling story, combining sheer horror, symbolism, philosophy. Hearing Jonathan Davis's excellent narration of the author's beautiful prose is a pleasure.

Having read the New Sun books 25 years ago, I have to say that listening to them narrated by a truly great narrator made them even more enjoyable the second time around. Wolfes' writing is beautiful and hearing it in a different voice other than your own inner reading voice makes you appreciate his amazing ability to string words together, many of which he created for there rhythmic sound, in a melodic way which most authors can only dream of.

This book is the first part in a five part series, and only the first four books are available on Audible. I would say that this series is the story of the torturer's apprentice Severian, and his journey from lowest and most despised member of society to the throne, set in a far future Earth in which civilization and society are on a slow decline. I would say that, except that this is less a story and more a multi-dimensional mental jigsaw puzzle. The series requires that you, the listener, pay a great deal of attention to the plot, characters and vocabulary, and then listen to the whole thing all over again, possibly a few times, to get the richness, complexity and beauty of Gene Wolfe's vision. If you are prepared to make that kind of commitment, this is a great bargain as it will repay you in many hours of listening pleasure, getting better each time you listen again.

If you are not familiar with Gene Wolfe's work, you would probably be surprised to hear this series compared to Lord of the Rings. After all, how many stories can live up to that kind of comparison? Amazingly The Book of the New Sun series does, and in some ways exceeds it, as these are more adult stories with some added layers of complexity.

Audible really outdid themselves with this production. I can't imagine a finer narrator for this series than Jonathon Davis. His pacing, emphasis, vocal expressions and various character renderings are flawless. The pacing is particularly important, as nearly every sentence contains some clue to solving the final puzzle.

I hope the final book in the series, The Urth of the New Sun, will be available at some point. Although written a few years after the first four in the series, it fits in so well with the rest of the story and solves so many unanswered questions that it appears to have been planned all along.

The Shadow of the Torturer introduces Severian, an orphan who grew up in the torturer's guild. Severian is now sitting on a throne, but in this first installment of The Book of the New Sun, he tells us of key events in his boyhood and young adulthood. The knowledge that Severian will not only survive, but will become a ruler, doesn't at all detract from the suspense; it makes us even more curious about how he will get there and what he experiences on the way.

What makes Gene Wolfe's epic different from everything else on the SFF shelf is his unique, evocative storytelling style. The reader isn't given all of the history and religion lessons (etc.) that are often dumped on us at the beginning of a fantasy epic. Rather, Severian's story is episodic and seems like it's meandering lazily, taking regular scenic detours, as if there's nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there. Because the story isn't a straight narrative, we don't understand the purpose or meaning of everything Severian relates ??? we have to patch it together as we go. By the end of the book, we're still clueless about most of it and we're starting to realize that Severian is kind of clueless, too. Much of the power of this novel comes from the sense that there is world-building and symbolism on a massive scale here, but that explanations and revelations for the reader would just cheapen it and remove the pleasure that comes from the experience of discovery.

In addition to being unique in style, The Shadow of the Torturer is a gorgeous piece of work: passionate storytelling (heart-wrenching in places), fascinating insights into nature and the human condition, beautiful prose.

I am almost anti-fantasy. I find most derivative at best and banal to the extreme. Wolfe's first book in his famous The Book of the New Sun tetralogy, however, is genre fiction at its finest. Original, difficult and well-crafted, it is easy to see how Wolfe is regarded as a writer's writer.

This is maybe one of the saddest books I've read. An overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness pours out of each line. It is deeply emotional book, and I don't think such a book is for everyone.

If you need constant action, hope, a quest, a hero with a purpose, and so on, this is not the book for you. There isn't even the hope of redemption for the protagonist and he really could use it. The story really is something quite dark and often times aimless.

Now, I completely enjoyed the book and found myself easily lost in the story. I don't doubt it is due a good deal to the excellent narration. The random wandering, discoveries, and encounters keep the story moving along and interesting. It is a very dream-like tale.

The only issue I had was that the author does ramble more than once, even to the point of being annoying in a few instances. Once during the book, I did sigh and think, "Can we get on with it?" However, this did not spoil my overall enjoyment.

In short, it's a great story if you can appreciate a great setting where hope isn't offered as the protagonist wanders aimlessly into exile.

The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), the first of the four books that comprise Gene Wolfe's science fiction masterpiece The Book of the New Sun, is a rich, moving, and challenging novel. Just in the first few chapters we learn that narrator Severian (who is writing his life story) was an orphan apprentice of the guild of torturers (the Seekers for Truth and Penitence) in the Citadel of sprawling Nessus (the City Imperishable) in the far future of Urth (earth?), under a dying sun; that the towers of the Citadel are long-derelict spaceships; that Severian has an eidetic memory; and that his youthful encounter with the rebel leader Vodalus set in motion events that will lead him to betray his guild, become an exile, and sit on the throne.

The novel is disturbing! There are glimpses of the appalling "excruciations" the guild performs upon its "clients," and many characters are afflicted with grief, including Severian, who is cursed to remember every detail of his sad experiences. But it is also funny, as in the eccentric and grotesque characters like Dr. Talos and Baldanders and the banter between Severian and Agia.

Severian's history is a demanding read. As in novels like A Voyage to Arcturus, everything seems to bear symbolic as well as narrative meaning. And Severian is not a completely reliable narrator, for he often lies and may be insane, and although he remembers everything, he selectively tells his story, at times eliding painful things and alluding to them later while narrating different events. And some things he recounts question the reality of his world (and ours).

Severian has much to say about reality, memory, history, story, art, culture, justice, religion, meaning, and love. Provocative lines punctuate his text. Symbols "invent us, we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." Or "time turns our lies to truths." Or "the charm of words … reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us."

Additionally, the richness of the novel's language, the elegance of its style, and the fertility of its imagination require slow savoring. In Severian's text common words rub shoulders with archaic or obscure ones, evoking the exotic texture of his world, as in names for officials (autarch, archon, castellan, chiliarch, lochage) and beasts of burden (dromedaries, oxen, metamynodons, onagers, hackneys).

Numerous descriptions yield shivers of pleasure: "She sighed, and all the gladness went out of her face, as the sunlight leaves the stone where a beggar seeks to warm himself." Or "Behind the altar rose a wonderful mosaic of blue, but it was blank, as if a fragment of sky without cloud or star had been torn away and spread upon the curving wall." Or "(A spell there was, surely, in this garden. I could almost hear it humming over the water, voices chanting in a language I did not know but understood.)"

Numerous scenes impress themselves on mind and heart, as when Severian visits the blind caretaker of the Borgesian library, finds a horribly wounded fighting dog, connects Thecla to the revolutionary, receives the black sword Terminus Est, falls into the Lake of Birds in the Garden of Everlasting Sleep, performs for the first time the mysteries of his guild's art, or witnesses a miracle with Dorcas.

Jonathan Davis adds so much to the novel with his witty and compassionate reading, modifying his voice to enhance each character without drawing attention to himself. And it's a pleasure to hear him relish Wolfe's beautiful prose or say words like anacreontic, carnifex, epopt, fuligin, fulgurator, hipparch, paracoita, and psychopomp. (Though it does help to have the text handy!)

At the end of The Shadow of the Torturer, Severian says he cannot blame his reader for refusing to follow him any more through his life, for "It is no easy road." Nevertheless, the next three novels reward the effort to read them manifold.

I've been waiting and hoping that Wolfe's Book of the New Sun would get an audiobook version. In terms of the original text Wolfe's work stands alongside that of Tolkien and Herbert, among the greatest and most rewarding of authors, one whose profound work repays the reader in direct proportion to their own effort. Now we get to listen to this lengthy meditation on love, memory and identity...and what a listen it is!

The narration is smooth and measured and fits very well the tone and tempo of the book in my opinion. The complexity of Severian's character and the original text are well-served by Jonathon Davis and I would heartily recommend this to any fan of Wolfe. And if you're not already a fan of Wolfe this just might change your mind.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Peter

Lymm, Cheshire, United Kingdom

8/9/10

Overall

"Gene Wolfe's classic masterwork"

Gene Wolfe's 4-volume 'Book of the New Sun' (5 volumes, when you add 'The Urth of the New Sun') is arguably one of the finest works of 20th century fiction, not just SF/fantasy. Like Jack Vance's 'Dying Earth' series (to which it respectfully nods), Wolfe sets his story so far in the future that SF and fantasy meld. Our own and subsequent ages survive only in garbled myth and archaeology. The story is beautifully written, and brims with stunning ideas, literary influences and inventiveness. Once appreciated, it lingers forever in the memory. On one level it can be read simply as a superior SF/fantasy story. However, new readers should be aware that it's much more tricksy than it first seems. Every sentence is carefully and deliberately crafted, the narrator can not always be relied on for accuracy, characters are often much more than they seem, and what appear to be inconsequential details assume huge significance later in the work. It repays multiple re-readings in a way few works do. If you get to the end and have enjoyed it, track down 'Solar Labyrinth' by Robert Borski and 'Lexicon Urthus' by Michael Andre-Driussi, and prepare to be gob-smacked and delighted by what you've missed. Then re-read it from the beginning!

The narration is high quality and admirably serves the series. Just the right amount of voice characterisation without 'over acting'. Bravo audible!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Anton

Berlin

4/3/10

Overall

"Fantastic"

This is the first volume of the "Book of the New Sun". Wherever I read about this book before, I read that it is SF. I am not sure how to call it myself. There are a lot of surprising turns in the story. After listening to a third of it, I was convinced it is an unusual piece of fantasy; but then the story developed into something completely fantastic, full of symbolism, almost bizarre. For me, this book has more in common with the novels of E.T.A Hoffmann and the German romanticists of the early 19th century than with either SF or modern fantasy. The narration is excellent. Among the best I have listened to in the last year. If you have read something about Gene Wolfe, then you know about his frequent use of obscure words. But this was not as big a problem as I feared. My dictionary was not much help, though, and I had some opportunity to use the OED (unabridged) at my office. But this is extra fun, and you don't need to do this for following the story. I just downloaded the second volume of the series: "The Claw of the Conciliator".

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Dr

3/27/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Science fantasy at its best"

After having finished M John Harrison's excellent Viriconium sequence, I grew worried that I'd never find a science fantasy title to match it for scope, imagination and sheer poetry. How glad I am then that I stumbled, quite by accident, on Gene Wolfe's highly acclaimed Book of the New Sun. The publisher's blurb lead me to expect a work to rival Tolkien in its scope and, for once, they weren't exaggerating, for Wolfe's prose leaves Tolkien standing, and the breadth of his imagination makes middle earth seem like a tame and tedious sort of place. What makes this even better are the good production values of the recording (it's odd how much atmosphere a bit of music at the start and end can lend an audiobook), and the intelligence and pathos of Jonathan Davis's performance. This is a very rich text, and Davis captures its many nuances perfectly. I have already purchased the remaining three volumes of the series, and hope they live up to the high standards set by The Shadow of the Torturer.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

E. Nolan

9/14/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"The language in this book is beautiful"

The book is beautifully written and the narrator does it great justice. This series is a classic that will still be read decades hence.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mark

United Kingdom

6/11/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Dark and dreamy"

There are plenty of reviews to suggest the quality of this work but I would single out the narration as one of the best matched to the story I have come across in listening to 100+ Audiobooks.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Rowan Litobarski

5/25/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Highly Unusual and Gripping Speculative Fiction"

It's a hard task to make a protagonist a torturer, and yet Gene Wolfe creates the perfectly memorable character of Severian. One of the most unique characters to have merged in fiction and a truly engaging storyline, that works on several levels. It certainly has an almost dreamlike quality to it and like reading a historical diary, you come away wondering if what was recounted was a description of the actual events of the story or a highly biased and conflicting version as Severian, is if nothing else, a highly unreliable narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

daniel

Guildford, United Kingdom

4/7/13

Overall

"darkly beautiful"

This series has always been one of my all time favourites....a beautifully written saga set a million years in the future when our sun is dying and the eons of history preceding this story have faded beyond myth.Wolfe crafts a tale that works on numerous levels,indeed this novel has been voted a SF masterwork and its obvious why.just buy it,you wont be disappointed I promise...a magical experience

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mirenda Rosenberg

Ireland

1/20/12

Overall

"Captivating - took me a while to get into the book"

It took me a while to get into this book. I listen to audio-books while driving/walking/cleaning etc, and I found my attention drifting during the first hour (or so) of this book. However, once got to know Severian - once I gained a strong impression of who he was and the complications of his life - I was hooked. Every character is interesting, even the smallest peripheral characters are well developed. I strongly recommend this book and the rest of the series.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mr. M. G. Helliwell

surrey, england

11/27/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"As good as when I first read it"

I read this as a youth when it first came out. It's stood the test of time well and remains an enjoyable read.

The narration was steady and measured, which suited the tone of the book very well. However, this measured pace slipped over into some the women's voices which meant that they sometimes sounded like they were talking without much expression. This is really only a minor quibble. The big problem with the narration was that it was just too quiet. I had to turn the volume right up to hear it properly, which led to some distortion and booming.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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